How do I use Nova Search?

Goal

Find settings, meetings, moments, notes, subscriptions and text from your screen history in one window and follow a how-to all the way to the setting.

Before you start

• Nova runs in the menu bar. See How do I start Nova with the Mac, and where is the menu?
• The Nova Search shortcut, Option-K by default. To change it, see How do I change keyboard shortcuts?

Steps

1. Press Option-K. The Nova Search window opens with the field Search Nova….
2. Type a word. Under All the results are grouped, up to five per group. Show all … opens the whole group.
3. At the top you pick the area: All, Settings, Meetings, Moments, Notes, Subscriptions or History. Tab and Shift-Tab switch the area.
4. Choose with the arrow keys, Enter opens. A meeting, moment, note or subscription opens in its own window, and the search closes.
5. If screen history is on, the search also finds text that was on your screen. A hit opens the History window at that moment.
6. A question like “How do I change the voice?” shows the steps under How-to. Open setting takes you to the spot. Full guide with pictures opens the guide on nova-assistant.io.
7. A setting opens as a card with its controls right in the window. More in How do I find a setting?
8. From the menu bar: Meetings, Moments, Notes or Subscriptions, then Search. The search starts in that area.

Example

Option-K, type “tax”, press Tab to switch to Subscriptions and open the subscription with Enter.

Common problems

• The search runs no commands. It finds settings and what is saved in Nova.
• There are only 15 how-tos so far. Not every one has a guide with pictures.
• If the word search finds no how-to for a question, Nova asks the AI model you set up. It gets your question and the list of how-tos. With Privacy Lock this does not happen.
• If a source takes too long, its group stays empty.
• A click next to the window closes the search.
• The History area only appears when screen history is on, and it only searches once you type a word.